褒める (homeru) conjugation
to praise; to say nice things
褒める (ほめる, homeru) is an ichidan verb. Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes. Every form below is tappable — hear it, then say it back.
Conjugation table
| Form | Plain (casual) | Polite (~ます) | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dictionary / plain | 褒める homeru | 褒めます homemasu | The form you look up. Also the casual present and future. |
| Plain negative | 褒めない homenai | 褒めません homemasen | “doesn’t / won’t”. From here it conjugates like an i-adjective. |
| Plain past | 褒めた hometa | 褒めました homemashita | The casual past — same ending as the te-form, with た/だ. |
| Plain past negative | 褒めなかった homenakatta | 褒めませんでした homemasendeshita | “didn’t”. The negative past, still i-adjective-shaped. |
| Te-form | 褒めて homete | — | The connector: requests, linking clauses, ~ている. |
| Progressive (~ている) | 褒めている hometeiru | 褒めています hometeimasu | “is ~ing”, or an ongoing resulting state. |
| Desire (~たい) | 褒めたい hometai | 褒めたいです hometaidesu | “want to ~”. Behaves as an i-adjective. |
| Volitional | 褒めよう homeyou | 褒めましょう homemashou | “let’s ~” / “I think I’ll ~”. |
| Potential | 褒められる homerareru | 褒められます homeraremasu | “can ~”. What you could do; the object often takes が. |
| Passive | 褒められる homerareru | 褒められます homeraremasu | “is ~ed”. Also the honorific and the suffering passive. |
| Causative | 褒めさせる homesaseru | 褒めさせます homesasemasu | Make or let someone do it. |
| Causative-passive | 褒めさせられる homesaserareru | 褒めさせられます homesaseraremasu | Be made to do it — the long one. |
| Imperative | 褒めろ homero | 褒めてください hometekudasai | Blunt order. Use ~てください in real life. |
| Prohibitive | 褒めるな homeruna | — | “don’t!” — dictionary form + な. |
| Conditional (~ば) | 褒めれば homereba | — | “if ~”. General rules and hypotheticals. |
| Conditional (~たら) | 褒めたら hometara | — | “if / when ~”. The everyday conditional. |
🔊 Tap any Japanese word to hear it spoken.
Why it conjugates this way
Ichidan verbs are the tidy ones: drop the final る and add the ending. Nothing inside the word ever changes.
See the full rules on the verb conjugation guide.